Colorado prepares for all-mail election

DENVER — Colorado is preparing for an all-mail election this year under new statewide rules that will allow voters to avoid standing in lines on Election Day without having to request it.

Voters can also register through Election Day, rather than facing a deadline of 30 days before the election, Denver Post reported Thursday (http://tinyurl.com/jwctzyl ).

Amber McReynolds, Denver’s director of elections, said the changes mean Colorado will have a more efficient, more cost-effective and more consistent way of collecting ballots.

“It provides a lot of consistency, not just from election to election, but county to county,” she said.

In the most recent general election, 74 percent of Colorado voters chose to vote by mail, according to the Colorado County Clerks Association.

McReynolds said the new law eliminates some of the problems that led to voters in the past being issued provisional ballots when they could not prove they had the right to vote. That required those ballots to be counted after Election Day after the credentials and signatures of provisional voters were verified.

Critics include Secretary of State Scott Gessler, the state’s top election official, and Wayne Williams, the clerk and recorder in El Paso County.

Williams said the new system will create confusion and invite fraud. He said his office will spend an extra $100,000 in this year’s election because of the changes, mostly for new equipment and for voting sites, which are required for people who did not get their mail ballots or who wait until the last minute to vote.

“There are just a number of issues I have with it,” Williams said of the new law. “I think there are a lot of problems that haven’t been worked out.”